[aaronbrethorst]

The key distinction is that in this case it was a matter of

    simply threatening torture

Torture would not have produced more useful results, and may have actually produced less useful results. Threatening it, on the other hand, seems to have worked.

The issue with the CIA torture scandal is that you have a bunch of guys who may or may not know anything. These guys are interrogated, and, probably, disclose everything they know. Then, the higher ups at the CIA, acting on the authority of Cheney[1] and Bush[2] required that the guys being held—who may or may not know anything more or at all—be tortured to extract more information.

At this point, the guys being held who may or may not know anything are going to start telling their 'enhanced' interrogators anything they can in order to stop what's happening to them. It doesn't matter if it's real or fake.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/09/dick-cheney-def... (and it's important to note that the Senate report on this subject revealed that torture had nothing to do with the discovery of bin Laden's location.)

[2] http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-bush-knew-about-cia-tortu...

[maroonblazer]

Maybe, but consider: instead of someone like the person in the article, the perpetrator is a member of a radical fundamentalist organization who believes that death is better than life and is not so put off by the prospect of some discomfort, at least in theory. It's conceivable that once theory is put into practice he might rethink his position.

[aaronbrethorst]

That's completely, verifiably wrong.

    The Senate report has a revealing passage saying that
    the statement of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ("KSM")
    "during his first day in CIA custody included an
    accurate description of a Pakistani/British operative,
    which was dismissed as having been provided during the
    initial 'throwaway stage' of information collection
    when the CIA believed detainees provided false or
    worthless information". KSM was later water-boarded
    (simulated drowning) 183 times, leading him to make
    frequent confessions that later turned out to be false.
    Another section of the report says that "KSM fabrications
    led the CIA to capture and detain suspected terrorists
    who were later found to be innocent".

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/torture-it-didnt...